Language Syntax

DCL has a simple structure built on three terms: function, argument, and value. Every function returns a string and takes named arguments whose values are strings.

The example below prints the firstname from the contact card.

<% contact field="firstname" %>

Token	Meaning
<%	Tells the page a DCL function is starting.
contact	The name of the function.
field	The argument name.
"firstname"	The argument value.
%>	Ends the DCL function.

Whitespace

Whitespace characters are not visible and can be used freely to keep your DCL code readable. You can write the same function like this:

<%
contact
field="firstname"
%>

This is more useful when DCL lines become long.

Functions

A function starts with <% and ends with %>. It returns a string that is printed on the page or used as an argument to another function. The example below builds a link to your website using the user field website as an argument to the link function.

<% link url=<% user field="website" %> caption="Link to Website" %>

Strings

A string is a sequence of zero or more characters. In DCL, a literal string is written with double quotes.

"This is a string"

Only one character needs to be escaped in a literal string: the double quote. Two double quotes in a row produce one double quote in the resulting string.

"There is only 1 "" in this string"

Concatenate strings with the + character.

"This is a string" + "We add this string"

Because functions return strings, you can pass a function as an argument to another function, and you can concatenate functions and literal strings. The example below takes firstname and lastname from the contact card, puts a space between them, and uppercases the result. Whitespace is used to keep the code readable.

<% upper string=
	<% contact field="firstname" %> +
	 " " +
	 <% contact field="lastname" %>
%>